Phil Minton and John Butcher first improvised together in 1984 - as part of a sound-poetry/music series in the upstairs room of the Roebuck, a pub on the Tottenham Court Road. In 2002 they released the duo CD Apples of Gomorrah, and continue to perform occasionally in duo.

In the intervening years they've played together in a wide range of projects. In particular - a trio (active since 1991) with German guitarist Erhard Hirt and the "Phil Minton Quartet" (with Veryan Weston and Roger Turner).
This quartet continues to develop "mouthful of ecstasy" - a work based around texts from James Joyce's
Finnegans Wake. It was premiered in Bratislava (1994), and last performed in London in 2012.This quartet has also released slur, a CD of free improvisations.